Poses

After a good night\'s rest, the fight seemed asinine. Harry realized that perhaps he was over-tired from training. Cho was in his past, and while he\'d had a crush on her for a good while, his actual relationship with her hadn\'t lasted long. And really, she was a bit of a nutter. Or perhaps waking up with Draco in his bed clutching him swayed his mood. Evidently at some point in the night, Draco had crept in. Sneaky Slytherin. Harry kissed Draco to rouse him.

\"Ugh... morning breath, Harry,\" Draco protested, pulling an arm up over his face to shield himself from the smell.

\"Hey, I\'m forgiving you here.\" Harry sniggered at Draco\'s reaction and pulled at the defending arm.

\"Shouldn\'t I be forgiving you for... whatever that was about?\" Draco perked a brow at Harry as his arm was pulled away.

\"It\'s... well, maybe you should be. I don\'t know. Just... after what Ginny said about me with girls and....\" He frowned, it was still a little bothersome, but it really wasn\'t Draco\'s fault that Ginny brought it up. Harry thought for a moment about asking about Cho, but he decided that the subject was better left dropped.

\"That irritated me, too. You have just as big a lack of talent with boys as you did with girls.\" Draco smirked, relieved that he seemed to be forgiven. He was glad Harry didn\'t ask about Cho. He would\'ve lied about it, of course, but the truth of the matter was that he\'d only bothered with her because she\'d been with Harry. He\'d planned to use it against the Golden Boy later, but before he had the chance to drop that little bomb at what he\'d hoped would have been the most devastating moment, he was involved with Harry. Bitten on the ass by his own machinations. He supposed on some level he deserved last night\'s tantrum, so he wasn\'t particularly interested in prolonging the making up process.

Harry pinched Draco\'s arm. \"That\'s it. I\'m not making love to you this morning.\"

\"Mmm... sex,\" said Draco as he picked up the bottle of lubricant and started to get up. He was stopped by Harry\'s grip on him. \"Where are you going?\"

\"Drawing room.\"

\"Why?\" Harry pulled Draco back down onto the bed.

\"Sex? Or was that just a really good dream I was having of my boyfriend inviting me for a morning shag?\" Draco settled in against Harry.

\"Why not here?\" asked Harry.

\"Well, Ron...\"

\"He\'s asleep.\" Harry pointed over at his friend to demonstrate.

Taking a quick look back over his shoulder, he turned back to Harry and responded, \"Well spotted. However, he might wake up.\"

Harry smirked. \"Then you\'ll have to refrain from screaming my name.\"

Draco rolled his eyes. \"I want to scream it, Harry. Come on.\" Draco pulled at Harry\'s arm as he started to roll back.

Harry pulled his arm away from Draco and raised his brows. \"Seriously?\"

\"About screaming your name? Well, you\'ll have to inspire me.\" Draco gave Harry a sultry look.

\"No, seriously do you want to go into the drawing room?\" asked Harry, suspicious about why Draco was suddenly so concerned about Ron\'s feelings. Just what was going on between his best mate and his boyfriend?

\"Yes.\"

\"Why?\"

\"What if he wakes up and watches us?\" Draco asked as he looked back over his shoulder at Ron to see if Ron was already doing that.

Nonplussed, Harry asked, \"You didn\'t care a couple of weeks ago.\"

\"That was at night. It was dark.\"

\"Come to think of it, Draco we haven\'t done that with him in here since.\" Harry eyed Draco and sat up, detangling his limbs from the sheets and his lover.

\"Well, um... no.\" Draco reached for Harry.

\"Why is that, Draco?\" Harry deftly avoided him by springing out of the bed.

Heaving a sigh, Draco followed. \"He\'s straight and-- he wouldn\'t want to see that.\"

Again, Harry dodged Draco, this time moving to the wardrobe to grab a fresh robe and his pants. \"You? Considerate?\"

Draco folded his arms over his chest. \"It\'s been known to happen.\"

\"Not towards Ron.\"

\"You said you wanted me to be nicer to your friends. Aside from which, I don\'t want him seeing me naked, or you naked for that matter. Come on. It\'s just easier this way. We won\'t have to worry.\"

Harry wasn\'t sure he liked Draco being considerate of Ron. Of course, it was what he\'d asked for, but now that it was happening, Harry was distrustful. Particularly since he knew that Draco and Ron spent time in the drawing room together in the mornings and Draco was cagey about what they were doing in there. \"You know, I\'m suddenly not in the mood. I\'m going to have a shower.\" Harry started towards the bathroom.

\"I-- fine. Whatever, Harry.\" Draco gave a dismissive wave.

Harry shrugged and slammed the bathroom door. The noise woke Ron who looked up in bleary-eyed confusion as the portrait snickered. \"Fuck OFF!\" spat Draco, who threw on a robe and stormed into the drawing room.

--

\"Trouble in paradise, Harry?\" Richard leered so hard that it unsettled Harry.

Harry took his usual spot, pointedly one chair away from the creepy man. It bothered him that he couldn\'t get along with the only other outcast of the group, but the insinuation of Draco\'s lack of loyalty cut him deeply. So much so that he couldn\'t stop thinking about whether Ron and Draco were having an affair. \"How do you figure that?\"

\"Auror training, Harry. We\'ve all learned about body language already. Besides, I can spot boy trouble a mile away.\" Richard patted the seat next to him and then stretched his arm out around it.

Harry looked at the chair, then at the arm draped across it and then rolled his eyes. \"What would you know about boy trouble, anyway?\"

\"Well, if you\'d come closer I could explain to you just how much I would know about boy trouble. Come on, I thought The Boy Who Lived was brave. Afraid I\'ll make you soak your daks?\"

\"No, I just don\'t have boy trouble, nor do I see the point in getting any closer to you.\" Harry ruffled his hair, trying to appear as secure as he sounded. \"Unless, of course, you\'re having boy trouble, and then perhaps I might help.\"

Richard leaned on his elbow on the chair in an attempt to close the distance between them. \"Well, there is this looker in my class who is clearly seeing a complete arse who treats him like dirt. I\'d like to ask him out for a pint but he won\'t even sit next to me.\"

Harry glanced at the man leaning towards him in his nondescript navy blue robes that made his eyes stand out. \"Maybe the \'looker\' is the arse.\"

\"Oh, I doubt it. His boyfriend is from a long line of arses from what I\'ve heard. It was just a matter of time before the prat stepped out on him.\" Richard tried not to look triumphant at the way his statement made Harry pale.

\"What makes you think that\'s what happened?\" Harry couldn\'t maintain eye contact with Richard and looked down at the scratched desktop.

\"Malfoys aren\'t known for their fidelity. Everyone knows that, and you look like a dog\'s breakfast,\" said Richard, who slid into the empty seat to get that much closer to the nervous boy.

Dropping the pretense irked Harry almost as much as the man\'s closeness. Harry\'s snapped his head towards the front of the class, but he glared at him from the corner of his eye. \"I\'m too young for a pint.\"

\"I could get you in. But if you\'d rather, we could go for ice cream.\" Richard slid his arm along the back of Harry\'s chair.

Harry huffed at the derisive tone and spoke through his teeth, \"I don\'t want ice cream. Draco didn\'t cheat. Leave me alone.\" He turned his head back and scowled at Richard\'s arm until he withdrew it.

Rankled, Richard questioned, \"You know that for certain?\"

Did Harry know that for certain? Well, no. But now that someone was pushing him on it, he realized how very foolish that thought had been. Ron, gay? Draco slumming with a Weasley? Still, the evasiveness was infuriating which brought him back to start. \"He wouldn\'t,\" Harry meekly replied.

\"That didn\'t sound certain at all. Come with me for a pint. We can discuss how your boyfriend wouldn\'t cheat on you while making him wonder just where you are.\" This time Richard put his hand on Harry\'s shoulder, and the boy didn\'t immediately recoil.

Harry arched his brows. That idea was... appealing. Let Draco wonder what the ambiguousness was about for once. He reasoned that he didn\'t really need Arthur to guide him back from the Ministry. He\'d gone home alone the night before when the man had to stay for Order business. He could do it again. \"Fine.\"

\"Excellent,\" purred Richard. He fell silent, not wanting to press his luck any further. After a few moments, the instructor came in and class began.

--

Harry wasn\'t sure how it had happened. He excused himself to have a leak one minute and the next, he was pressed against the lavatory wall with Richard\'s tongue down his throat. It was a kiss that had something to prove. Claiming, angry, mashing of teeth and lips and Harry found it altogether as objectionable as Richard himself.

Shoving him away with more force than was necessary, thanks to the two pints he\'d drunk on his virgin system, Harry whirled around to leave. At least he\'d had time to urinate, he thought. Harry felt a hand land firm on his shoulder. The fingers dug in and he was whipped around and glaring into Richard\'s livid face. Harry felt that he was giving Richard a sufficiently malevolent look, but he found himself once again flat against a stall door, dealing with Richard\'s pungent beer breath and lashing tongue.

Again Harry shoved at Richard, but found stronger resistance this time. The older man had at least two stone more on him than Harry, which made escaping him thorny. Before Harry consciously decided to do it, his knee met with Richard\'s groin and the man was doubled over in pain and then on the floor. Harry staggered out of the bathroom, feigning obliviousness to people staring at him because of the wailing emanating from the toilets. \"No means no,\" muttered Harry as he made his way into the balmy evening and started his trek toward Grimmauld Place.

--

Draco was tense from waiting and worrying. He felt so much relief that Harry hadn\'t been attacked on the way home from the Ministry, it was hard for him to stay annoyed when he saw Harry, even though he was bleary eyed and off-kilter. His lover smelled of smoke and tasted like cheap beer, but he ignored it in favor of Harry\'s passionate kiss. Pressed against his family\'s tapestry, Draco melted and abandoned all rational thought.

Even though he hadn\'t welcomed Richard\'s kiss, the memory of it made his insides twist as if he\'d truly betrayed his lover. He heatedly balled up the sides of Draco\'s robes with his hands, and then he pulled it up over his lover\'s head and tossed it aside.

Taking another quick glance to the door to ensure that it was shut in their manic rush to get to this point, Draco shivered in the chill of the low-lit room and the feeling of being utterly naked up against his family symbol. His slender fingers scrammed for Harry\'s robe. He succeeded in pulling it off as Harry kissed down his body, pausing only to raise his hands over his head to allow the fabric to clear his arms.

Draco had little time to angst over the fact that clearly Harry wasn\'t going to let him top again before his prick was engulfed in the heat of his lover\'s mouth. His platinum hair caught at the dark tapestry as his head fell back and he exhaled through his pinked, violated lips. His hands twisted through the wiry strands of Harry\'s black hair as his head bobbed on his prick. This was, by far, the hardest Harry had ever worked at a blowjob and while Draco should have been asking himself why, he was entirely too shocked and aroused to do so. \"Harry!\" he gasped as he felt his toes curl.

Harry\'s green eyes scaled up Draco\'s body, observing the flexing of the boy\'s glistening abdomen and the erratic heaving of his chest. Harry crept one hand up Draco\'s torso towards his face, wanting to stroke it as Draco lurched forward to look down at Harry\'s frantic suckling. He tried to smile around the prick at Draco\'s vulnerable expression and forehead shimmering with perspiration. Sliding a finger up into the drool collecting on his bottom lip and the base of Draco\'s length, he then worked the finger to the cleft of the Slytherin\'s ass and then gently inside of him.

Draco\'s head snapped back against the wall. It made a resounding thud as Harry\'s finger sought out and found the hard but tender spot inside of him that made him cry out. Feeling the increased internal pressure along with the hard sucking from his boyfriend\'s hollowed out cheeks, Draco finally caved and shuddered, releasing into Harry\'s mouth.

The Gryffindor swallowed some, but kept his cheeks puffed with the majority of Draco\'s leavings still in his mouth. He stood up and for a horrifying moment, Draco thought he was going to force him to eat it. But then Harry turned his head and spat the sperm over The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black family tree. Draco watched with bemused revulsion as his ejaculate slid over Araminta Meliflua\'s family line, staining trails of white bubbles down the fibers of the tapestry.

Draco parted his lips to say something, only to find his mouth filled with his lover\'s tongue and the hard, slick press of his erection jabbing his hip. This speed at which this was taking place was starting to make it feel more like assault than sex, but Draco didn\'t want to stop. He wasn\'t sure he could stop it. Hoisted up by Harry\'s hands on the backs of his thighs, Draco wrapped his legs around his lover\'s waist.

\"I need this, Draco. I need you,\" Harry gasped against Draco\'s neck. He wasn\'t sure exactly why he needed it and if Draco was trying to stop him to discuss it; he wasn\'t sure what he\'d say. He couldn\'t bring himself to tell Draco the truth about Richard kissing him, which made him feel as if he was cheating. He didn\'t want to explain that he had a feeling that the older man was attracted to him and that he\'d gone anyway. That he thought that maybe he could cheat on Draco because he believed that Draco was cheating on him. \"Mine... you\'re mine...\"

Need. Draco was needed? Doing it this way was wrong, not just because Harry was in such a rush, but because what they needed to do was stop and talk, not fuck. Yet, being told that he was needed and feeling the hard press of Harry\'s body against his, he was too aroused to tell him no. \"Yes, yours, Harry... yours,\" he whispered as he brushed his lips over Harry\'s scar.

It hadn\'t occurred to Draco that Harry was going in dry until he felt the rough entry. His nails bit into Harry\'s shoulders as he wailed out in protest. \"Haaarrrry... waaaait! Slow dooooown! We need...\" He felt raw and chafed for an instant. His hands retained their tense grip as he bore out the sharp stab of pain that made his teeth clench and his face flush.

It hurt, and Draco was going to tell Harry to stop, but after a second and then a third hard thrust, the point was moot as Harry was flooding Draco with his release. \"I\'m sorry... I\'m so sorry, Draco. Merlin, I\'m so sorry,\" Harry sobbed into his lover\'s shoulder, after he realized too late what Draco had been wailing and why.

Of course Draco took it that he meant he was sorry for the rough sex. It hurt, but it wasn\'t the end of the world. He wasn\'t exactly a virgin when it came to anal sex. He had been bottoming a while. But it had taken him by surprise and his ass stung.

While the rushed sex was part of what Harry was apologizing for, in his alcohol-addled mind he was apologizing for everything that had happened that night.

\"It\'s all right, Harry. I-I\'m fine. I\'ll be fine,\" he assured him as he reached back to grasp the tapestry behind him so that he could detangle his legs from around Harry\'s waist and stand on his own. Once Harry\'s prick was out of his ass, the ache started anew, but it was dulling again. He knew he\'d live through this and he would be fine. He rationalized that Harry was just rough because he was drunk, another thing he decided he\'d take up with Harry later. \"I\'ll be fine. Let\'s-let\'s go to bed,\" mumbled Draco. He was tired now and he just wanted to lay down.

\"I\'m so, so sorry,\" whimpered Harry.

He searched Harry\'s troubled green eyes for a moment before he reached up to stroke his cheek and he kissed him gently. \"I know you are, Harry. I love you. I\'m fine. Really.\" At that, he started to slowly bend down to get his robe.

Seeing Draco\'s pained expression, Harry pressed a hand to his shoulder to stop him and knelt down himself to scoop up their robes. He threw his over his shoulder and turned Draco\'s right-side out. \"Draco, I love you, too. So much. I really am...\"

\"Please stop apologizing, Harry. Just-- don\'t do it like that again,\" said Draco as he pushed his arms through the sleeves of his robe that Harry was pulling down over his head like dressing a small child. \"I\'m really tired now, Harry.\"

Satisfied that Draco was dressed, he pulled his own robe on. \"Bed. Yes,\" said Harry. \"I need you, Draco. I don\'t want you to....\"

At this, Draco smiled and ruffled Harry\'s hair. A look of concern flickered over his face. Harry was being strange. Then again, he was drunk, which was a matter he decided to drop unless it happened again. They\'d been fighting that morning, probably the other students took him to a pub and he sobbed in a pint. There were worse things, he reasoned. \"I\'m not leaving you, Harry. I need you, too. Come on,\" he said as he took Harry\'s hand.

\"Wait, one second,\" Harry said as he pulled his wand from his pocket and cast a cleaning spell on the tapestry to remove Draco\'s semen.

Draco yawned and nodded his approval of the action, although he had found it to be a poetic statement about family trees in general. But since he thought Harry just did it because he was drunk, he didn\'t ask. Instead, he turned and headed for their room. His ass still smarted, but the pain was ebbing away. By morning it would be gone completely. Harry followed and after they both cleaned up, they sank into Harry\'s bed clinging tightly to one another as they slept fitfully.

--


\"Hermione thinks you need to tell him,\" intoned Ron in a voice that made it unclear where he stood on this issue.

\"I can\'t. She-doesn\'t have all of the facts,\" said Draco as he glared at the parchment, one of many that he\'d received from Snape over the past couple of weeks. You\'re brilliant with potions. Check. This is for your future. Check. This art will serve you well in the future. Check. Few have this gift. Check. Then, of course, the diatribe would go into more nebulous rants that might be, depending on Snape\'s mood, that he saw Draco as the son he never had. Or that Potter was going to ruin his life. Or that people took a chance on Draco\'s redemption and that perhaps he should be kinder towards people who made mistakes. The last one struck a chord, but seeing as Snape had no way to gauge Draco\'s response, he didn\'t realize it and therefore used it the least.

Nearly all correspondences came with a plea for Draco to speak with him. Draco never answered any of them. When the Order had their meetings, Draco would retire to the drawing room with the door closed and Harry would fill him in on what he needed to know.

\"She says he\'ll explode if he finds out we\'ve been hiding this from him,\" stated Ron.

Draco\'s jaw flexed. Harry seemed on the cusp of exploding nightly, and for this reason, Draco didn\'t want to mention Snape\'s visit or correspondence to him. \"He has enough on his mind. He\'s in all of those Auror training classes; people are plotting to kill him. I think I can spare him the distress of the greasy pederast.\" Draco\'s tone was dismissive in spite of how unsettling the idea of Harry finding out about this was. To punctuate his stance on the matter, he crumpled the parchment, tossed it into the air and with a well-aimed \"Evanesco,\" the parchment was permanently banished. \"He doesn\'t ask about Snape. What he does ask me about are our little morning chats. I think I\'m going to have to tell him.\"

At this, Ron panicked. He\'d also been avoiding Harry\'s ever more suspicious questions about his \"talks\" with Draco, but he found it increasingly awkward to talk about, as he still hadn\'t met his original goal. \"You can\'t tell him about that! You swore to me you wouldn\'t tell!\"

\"I know what I said, and I\'ve kept to it. But the time has come and he needs to know.\" Draco folded his hands in his lap calmly. It wasn\'t nice to betray Ron\'s trust; he\'d prefer permission to tell Harry what was going on. But if Ron wasn\'t forthcoming, Draco was willing to break his agreement in order to soothe Harry\'s doubts.

\"He\'ll be angry! She\'s like a sister to him! He\'ll get mad you were bargaining her virtue-\"

\"Oh for the love of Merlin, Weasley. I\'m the dramatic one! Bargaining her virtue? He knows you haven\'t shagged her yet. As we all do,\" Draco hissed.

\"It\'s not my fault. We haven\'t discussed that in a long time now! You got us off topic with all of the practicing!\" shouted Ron as he leapt to his feet in defense.

Draco rubbed his fingers to his temples. \"I couldn\'t take any more of your whining. And it isn\'t as if you didn\'t enjoy it!\"

\"I didn\'t deny that I enjoyed it! It was great practice! But the rate things are going I may not get to use it with anyone but you!\"

\"Then practice with someone else! I don\'t care!\" shouted Draco.

\"BUT THERE\'S NO ONE ELSE TO PRACTICE WITH!\"

Draco glowered at Ron, \"WHY DON\'T YOU PRACTICE WITH HERMIONE?\"

Ron returned the intense stare and then appeared stricken. \"You know why.\"

\"I do. Because you\'re afraid of her.\"

\"I\'m not afraid of her, I just don\'t want her to think I\'m a-\"

\"Fool? Pillock? Buffoon? If she really is the brightest witch of her age, I\'m pretty sure she\'s sussed that you are all of those by now,\" Draco pointed out as he flopped onto the couch.

Ron gave Draco an irritated look but then sighed and dropped onto a chair. \"I don\'t want her or Harry to know about any of this. Not what we started out discussing or what we\'ve been doing since then,\" Ron muttered. \"What if they find out and I\'m asked to perform and I... freeze up?\"

\"Well, depends on who you\'re in front of. If it\'s Hermione she\'ll probably just say something incredibly condescending and if it\'s a Death Eater then you\'ll die,\" said Draco.

\"I almost wish it were the other way around,\" sighed Ron, reasoning that death dealt from Hermione would be better than suffering the humiliation of her placating him.

Draco shrugged and sat up. \"Well, we\'re almost to the end of the books that Snape brought from my father\'s study anyway. There are only so many more spells to practice from there.\"

\"I know. I just... I\'d rather...\"

\"I know. But Ron, he\'ll be so much less stressed out to know we\'ve been practicing spells and gossiping about your shagging Granger than to know that Snape... \"

Ron nodded and his look of concern over Harry reflected Draco\'s. \"Is he really that bad off?\"

Biting his lip, Draco looked away, not sure he could even communicate properly how he felt, or if he really even wanted to. Ever since the first week of Auror training, Harry had just been... off. Questions about his day would send him off into tirades about fairness and being paired off with a freak. Other times when Draco would try to ask why this Richard person vexed Harry so much, the other boy would turn needy and strange. Draco would find himself pushed against whatever was near, load bearing or not, and taken passionately. In spite of the fact that he\'d asked Harry not to do that, he fancied that Harry was simply overwhelmed with his need for him and couldn\'t help himself. This theory was far more appealing than more realistic scenarios involving infidelity, or that Harry was cracking up; although both theories had played across his mind a few times. \"He\'s just stressed, I think. We just need to... let him in on this one thing.\"

\"But not about Snape.\"

\"He\'d...\"

\"Explode, right,\" said Ron as he pushed out of the chair.

\"Right.\" Draco was silent for a moment until he remembered something he\'d given brief thought to. \"Oh. Right, about Granger...\"

\"Yes?\"

Draco got up and moved over to the stack of books that the boys had been exploring together for the past couple of weeks and dug through to the bottom for his copy of The Taming of the Shrew. \"You\'ve kept up the compliments, right?\"

\"Well... mostly?\"

Giving an annoyed look, Draco shook his head. \"Plan a nice dinner for her. Maybe a midnight meal by moonlight or something equally as trite.\"

\"You make it sound so romantic, Malfoy.\"

\"Considering the parties involved, I should be praised for my ability to keep down breakfast.\"

\"Ass.\"

Draco smirked. \"Wrap this up and give it to her. It\'s her favorite.\" He tossed the tome to Ron.

Ron caught it and looked at it and then at Draco. \"But it\'s yours...\"

\"Which is why I\'m free to give it away.\"

\"No, git. I mean... you don\'t give things away a lot. I thought you liked it, and it looks expensive.\"

Draco shrugged. \"I don\'t need it, really. I have others,\" he said, deciding not to whine that it was his favorite, as well. If he really wanted it again, he could buy another, he reasoned. Although deep down he knew he wouldn\'t. He could\'ve given Ron this book at any time since Hermione had mentioned liking it. Now that he felt like he and Ron were friends and looking out for one another, he really wanted to.

\"Are you sure?\" asked Ron as he looked over the gilded letters and felt the fine leather. He knew she\'d love it and there was no way he could repay Malfoy. Not in this lifetime.

A million snarky things went through Draco\'s mind in response, but instead he just nodded.

\"Thank you,\" said Ron as he gave a sincere smile.

Draco grinned back and then shooed him away. \"Go on. I\'m just going to stay in here and read.\"

Ron gave one last look at Malfoy and then headed off to his room to plot.

--

\"The lack of progress vexes me, Severus,\" spoke the high, cold voice.

\"I apologize, my Lord.\" Snape was prostrate on the floor before the pale, reptilian man. \"But the boy\'s willfulness was part of his appeal, was it not?\"

While it was true that patricide was near and dear to Voldemort\'s heart, that was not the only reason in his interest in Draco Malfoy. He\'d always believed the boy to be little other than a whinging brat who couldn\'t follow orders. It was a shock that he\'d killed his father and made Voldemort reconsider his assessment. It took a good deal of will to take a life, particularly one so close. In fact, it was likely that Draco was stronger and held faster to his convictions than Lucius did. Undoubtedly he made his own path. Although he did fear that Lucius was right. That Draco had been afflicted with that petty emotion of love and the fact that Draco had yet to take the bait was bearing that out. \"This little plan puts Richard at risk. He was placed to observe and infiltrate, not to seduce.\"

\"I appreciate the position he is in, playing against his... orientation. There are advantages to his getting closer to Potter.\"

Voldemort\'s red eyes blazed for a moment at the contradiction, but he let it go. \"It lays more eyes on Richard. It was fortunate that we got him into Auror training at all; setting him so close to Potter is attracting attention to him. It has been made abundantly clear that this road will lead us nowhere. To push Potter further would expose Richard.\"

Snape nodded and continued to stare at the ground. It meant that he could not count on Potter to cheat on Malfoy to separate them. This was bad news for Snape as well as Malfoy. Voldemort only had so much patience with the boy\'s reticence to come back to the fold. \"I understand, Lord.\"

\"If Malfoy does not come with you willingly then you shall have to bring him by force. Either way, I will have my riches back. I have wasted enough time and energy doing this subtly. I must move forward before the Order does, your prurient interests notwithstanding. Get him out of that house and get the information out of him. If he refuses to turn, end him.\"

This was sticky. Then again, Snape\'s circumstances were always sticky. Both sides believed him to be a double agent for the other when, really he only ever looked after himself. Although he strongly suspected that both sides figured that as well. Each side only ever told him as much as they were comfortable with the other knowing, with the exception of a few matters that it would be in Snape\'s best interest to keep under wraps. It was a complicated cat and mouse game, if there were two cats and one elusive mouse in the middle.

What made it even more complicated was that Snape wasn\'t even sure Draco had the information Voldemort wanted. He\'d gambled that Draco knew something of how to get to the assets that Lucius was hiding on behalf of Voldemort, but he didn\'t know that for certain. \"What would you have me do, my Lord?\"

\"I have a plan,\" answered the Dark Lord, as he held out a book in his long, spidery hands.

--

So that was that as far as Snape was concerned. He sat in his dark cottage on the outskirts of London proper. His dining room table was necessarily small. Aside from the minuteness of his stone house, no one really came over anyway. It was an above ground house, but the lack of windows and torches made the setting dismally the same as the dungeons of Hogwarts.

He glared at the book that Voldemort handed him. His fingers slid over the cover, but he dared not open it. There were worse things that he could be called to do. There were measurable sacrifices in this war, and this was a tolerable one. Perhaps. Snape stood and paced the small confines of his kitchen/dining room. He circled around the small dark table, watching the way that the light played over the ominous silver lettering and the snakes that weaved its way around the spine and cover. It did scream Malfoy, didn\'t it? Still... Snape wasn\'t sure he could live with the sacrifice.

Snape pulled his wand and directed it at the book. Muttering an incantation, the book lit up the room in green and then yellow. Snape wailed in pain but maintained, keeping his wand pointed at the tome. His other hand steadied his wrist as his dark eyes narrowed in determination. Again he shouted in pain until he could no longer sustain eye contact and he slammed against the wall, clutching his wand hand against his chest. He had done all that he physically could. Snape hoped it was enough.